Trapping fresh sea breeze in desert? Health status of Camanchaca, Atacama’s fog

Abstract

Water fog composition was investigated at a fog harvesting installation in the coast of Atacama (North Chile). Chañaral is historically affected by mining contamination discharges. Hydro-chemical characterization of fog water from top of the mountain (where capture installation is located) and at the bottom of the mountain (after vertical transportation where an aquaponic system is located) revealed many compositional differences that compromise the use of water. High acidity and high concentrations in Cu and As in water collected on top of the mountain were found; meanwhile, acidity and Cu decreased, and As levels overpassed the drinking water standards after the vertical transportation. Collected data was assessed according to national and international regulatory standards, neutralization factors (NF), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and ion ratios to determine origin of contamination and suitability of destined for human consumption, irrigation, or aquaculture purposes.

Contrasting wet deposition composition between three diverse islands and coastal North American sites

“…For the other sites, the second most impactful neutralization agent was nss Ca 2+ with seasonal average values ranging from 0.11 to 0.50. A wide body of work has associated Ca 2+ in wet deposition with dust, including over Africa (Akpo et al, 2015;Bonnail et al, 2018), Asia (Cao et al, 2009;Qiao et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2005) and North America (Dadashazar et al, 2019;Sorooshian et al, 2013).…”

Water Particles Monitoring in the Atacama Desert: SPC Approach Based on Proportional Data

“…Despite this arid environment, there is a particular phenomenon that will allow the formation of the Camanchaca in some area (in the cities of Copiapó and Huasco): morning and night sea mist (or fog), which will advance inland and penetrate deeply into the valleys and can be a source of water [18] in a region that suffers scarcity of this resource. In a simplified way, marine stratocumulus form over the Pacific Ocean, presenting, on the Chilean coast, cold temperatures linked to the Humboldt Current [19].…”

The Arid Coastal Wetlands of Northern Chile: Towards an Integrated Management of Highly Threatened Systems

“…Rainfall in the study area tends to increase with latitude [52] with mean annual values that range from 1.5 mm in Arica (18.4 • S) to 35.9 mm in Huasco (28.1 • S), south of the study area [53] (Figure 3). Despite coastal fog, a distinguishable feature of the local climate that provides water to a hyperarid environment and isolated ecosystems (e.g., [54][55][56][57]), the area is classified as hyperarid as the IDM is <0.5 [30]. Thus, desertic landscapes with coastal xerophilic scrub dominate as vegetation is scarce except along the transverse (east-west) valleys of the rivers that flow from the Andes range to the Pacific Ocean, crossing the desert and fed at high altitudes [4].…”